Seasonal Rental Workshop packs heated debate
Roughly 40 people brought forth several heated topics on issues regarding a proposed and continuously developed Town ordinance at a Town Hall workshop on Wednesday, Aug. 17. The workshop involved setting more defined rules and regulations to ensure compliance with Town building and fire codes and to protect the health, safety and welfare of occupants involved with seasonal rental properties (rental period of 6 months or less) on Fort Myers Beach.
Vice Mayor Bob Raymond chaired the seasonal rental seminar that featured certain members of Town staff and much public input mostly from Beach property management companies, Realtors and individual property owners who rent out their units to seasonal renters.
The discussion centered on a draft ordinance 11-05, Residential Rental Registry,
which was prepared by Town staff but not adopted by Town Council. The Town’s Land Development Code has developed a “Code of Conduct” for all rentals. The current rental regulations involve occupancy; refuse collection; “Quiet Hours” (limited noise between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.); and a hurricane evacuation rule.
A final public hearing for the proposed ordinance was tabled at the June 20 Council meeting. Workshops were planned to allow more time for the preparation of information to regulate seasonal rentals and provide community feedback leading up to the hearings, slated for Oct. 3.
“The primary purpose of the ordinance is to ensure the safety of our visitors and guests of our inspected short term rental properties to meet minimum safety standards, building and fire codes,” said Raymond. “Further, this ordinance will provide the Town and law enforcement with contact information for rental property managers. Thirdly, given the seasonal rental properties by virtue of their more frequent turnovers, they operate more of a commercial operation than a residential operation. Accordingly, this ordinance provides a nexus of addressing those impacts and ensuring the additional tax burden created and paid for by property owners.”
Although the regulation was listed to be an inspection for compliance and to protect the health, safety and welfare of occupants of such properties, many of the public speakers were opposed to some or all of the draft ordinance’s content. Some even went as far as calling it “discriminatory,” “redundant,” an “unnecessary level of government,” an “increase in bureaucracy” and a created “new revenue stream” for the Town.
“This is definitely not Government Lite,” said Realtor Jessie Titus.
“I don’t see the rational nexus,” said Beach resident Patrick Vanasse, a professional planner. “”When I deal with these issues in my professional life, it’s usually about substandard housing and noncompliant uses. This discussion here is about collecting taxes, code enforcement and noise. If it’s maintenance, we have code enforcement. If it’s noise, we have law enforcement. If it’s public health safety, we have fire service. To me, this is an unnecessary level of government.”
“If we could drop this “Quiet Zone” issue for the rest of the discussion, I would personally appreciate that,” said Beach homeowner Judith Lee, who would like the Town to use the City of Sanibel as a reference for re-writing the draft ordinance.
“I do believe that this is strictly for revenue resource,” said Property Management Director Rick Loughrey.
“People who pay big bucks here are not going to come back and stay in a home that’s not safe and that they don’t feel is maintained. We’re creating a level of government that we are going to have tons of people to inspect,” said Realtor Jane Plummer.
Many of the workshop participants believed seasonal rentals are being singled out. The draft ordinance does not apply to hotels, motels, resorts, bed & breakfast units or residential units for periods of more than six months.
Town Manager Terry Stewart addressed the issues and confirmed the draft ordinance needs more work before it comes before Town Council again.
“I am very encouraged from what I heard here. There are recognitions that there may be other ways to handle some of these things. We certainly are going to take this to heart and put it into play wherever that is possible.”
One resident said rule breakers are the ones to go after, not the entire populace.
“I think we are over-reacting to a vocal minority. I think that most everybody here wants to comply with what is going on, but the current rules are not working. If they are not working, then go after the people that are breaking the rules. That is what we should be doing,” said Beach resident Chuck Bodenhafer.
“We are in kind of a pickle here in the Town,” said Stewart. “We have a Town of 7,000 permanent residents and much of our shared revenue is based on population. However, during season, we can grow to 40,000 or more for months at a time. We have to provide the operation and infrastructure resources that are necessary to take care of that. Our property owners are the ones that are helping support the tourists that come here with the operations and the infrastructure.”
Community Development Director Walter Fluegel was pleased to see so many of the workshop attendants were present at the recent Town Visioning Workshops.
“It is incredibly important to get public input. We don’t like to do these things in a vacuum. But, there are some guiding principles that we are guided by. If this is an issue that we need to go back and visit in the Comprehensive Plan, then we need to be hearing that during that planning process,” he said.
Beach resident Lee Melsek asked if the policy in the ordinance creates a “revenue neutral” system or if it will be used as “a new revenue stream to finance a government that continues to grow every year.”
“I think it is time for staff to step back and take in all that we’ve heard here today,” said Stewart. “I suspect that you’re going to see some significant changes through what we have talked about here today. We will take everything that you had to say into account and put together something for Council’s consideration. I will guarantee you that before it gets finalized, there will be an opportunity to speak about that as well.”
Stewart doesn’t expect anything to happen regarding an ordinance before 30 or 45 days. Another workshop can probably be expected before too long.
“We will ensure that we let the public know both through the media and other venues when we are ready to bring something forth to Council,” he said.
Seasonal Rental Workshop packs heated debate
Roughly 40 people brought forth several heated topics on issues regarding a proposed and continuously developed Town ordinance at a Town Hall workshop on Wednesday, Aug. 17. The workshop involved setting more defined rules and regulations to ensure compliance with Town building and fire codes and to protect the health, safety and welfare of occupants involved with seasonal rental properties (rental period of 6 months or less) on Fort Myers Beach.
Vice Mayor Bob Raymond chaired the seasonal rental seminar that featured certain members of Town staff and much public input mostly from Beach property management companies, Realtors and individual property owners who rent out their units to seasonal renters.
The discussion centered on a draft ordinance 11-05, Residental Rental Registry, which was prepared by Town staff but not adopted by Town Council. The Town’s Land Development Code has developed a “Code of Conduct” for all rentals. The current rental regulations involve occupancy; refuse collection; “Quiet Hours” (limited noise between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.); and a hurricane evacuation rule.
A final public hearing for the proposed ordinance was tabled at the June 20 Council meeting. Workshops were planned to allow more time for the preparation of information to regulate seasonal rentals and provide community feedback leading up to the hearings, slated for Oct. 3.
“The primary purpose of the ordinance is to ensure the safety of our visitors and guests of our inspected short term rental properties to meet minimum safety standards, building and fire codes,” said Raymond. “Further, this ordinance will provide the Town and law enforcement with contact information for rental property managers. Thirdly, given the seasonal rental properties by virtue of their more frequent turnovers, they operate more of a commercial operation than a residential operation. Accordingly, this ordinance provides a nexus of addressing those impacts and ensuring the additional tax burden created and paid for by property owners.”
Although the regulation was listed to be an inspection for compliance and to protect the health, safety and welfare of occupants of such properties, many of the public speakers were opposed to some or all of the draft ordinance’s content. Some even went as far as calling it “discriminatory,” “redundant,” an “unnecessary level of government,” an “increase in bureaucracy” and a created “new revenue stream” for the Town.
“This is definitely not Government Lite,” said Realtor Jessie Titus.
“I don’t see the rational nexus,” said Beach resident Patrick Vanasse, a professional planner. “”When I deal with these issues in my professional life, it’s usually about substandard housing and noncompliant uses. This discussion here is about collecting taxes, code enforcement and noise. If it’s maintenance, we have code enforcement. If it’s noise, we have law enforcement. If it’s public health safety, we have fire service. To me, this is an unnecessary level of government.”
“If we could drop this “Quiet Zone” issue for the rest of the discussion, I would personally appreciate that,” said Beach homeowner Judith Lee, who would like the Town to use the City of Sanibel as a reference for re-writing the draft ordinance.
“I do believe that this is strictly for revenue resource,” said Property Management Director Rick Loughrey.
“People who pay big bucks here are not going to come back and stay in a home that’s not safe and that they don’t feel is maintained. We’re creating a level of government that we are going to have tons of people to inspect,” said Realtor Jane Plummer.
Many of the workshop participants believed seasonal rentals are being singled out. The draft ordinance does not apply to hotels, motels, resorts, bed & breakfast units or residential units for periods of more than six months.
Town Manager Terry Stewart addressed the issues and confirmed the draft ordinance needs more work before it comes before Town Council again.
“I am very encouraged from what I heard here. There are recognitions that there may be other ways to handle some of these things. We certainly are going to take this to heart and put it into play wherever that is possible.”
One resident said rule breakers are the ones to go after, not the entire populace.
“I think we are over-reacting to a vocal minority. I think that most everybody here wants to comply with what is going on, but the current rules are not working. If they are not working, then go after the people that are breaking the rules. That is what we should be doing,” said Beach resident Chuck Bodenhafer.
“We are in kind of a pickle here in the Town,” said Stewart. “We have a Town of 7,000 permanent residents and much of our shared revenue is based on population. However, during season, we can grow to 40,000 or more for months at a time. We have to provide the operation and infrastructure resources that are necessary to take care of that. Our property owners are the ones that are helping support the tourists that come here with the operations and the infrastructure.”
Community Development Director Walter Fluegel was pleased to see so many of the workshop attendants were present at the recent Town Visioning Workshops.
“It is incredibly important to get public input. We don’t like to do these things in a vacuum. But, there are some guiding principles that we are guided by. If this is an issue that we need to go back and visit in the Comprehensive Plan, then we need to be hearing that during that planning process,” he said.
Beach resident Lee Melsek asked if the policy in the ordinance creates a “revenue neutral” system or if it will be used as “a new revenue stream to finance a government that continues to grow every year.”
“I think it is time for staff to step back and take in all that we’ve heard here today,” said Stewart. “I suspect that you’re going to see some significant changes through what we have talked about here today. We will take everything that you had to say into account and put together something for Council’s consideration. I will guarantee you that before it gets finalized, there will be an opportunity to speak about that as well.”
Stewart doesn’t expect anything to happen regarding an ordinance before 30 or 45 days. Another workshop can probably be expected before too long.
“We will ensure that we let the public know both through the media and other venues when we are ready to bring something forth to Council,” he said.